A 5-Word Question That Changes Everything

This morning I’m working in Ohio with a sales team of over 80 from a billion dollar manufacturing client.

They understand and believe in the philosophy of Evergreen.

Not just because they believe in the total care of the customer, but because they know that the Evergreen principles will allow them to add greater value to their client’s companies and lives. And in return, they’ll experience dramatic growth and increased revenues.

During my pre-workshop discussions with some people from their team, it came up time and time again that one of the greatest challenges for a large organization was how to make the right decisions when it comes to customer-related challenges.

One of the challenges that’s pervasive in almost every organization is this:

We often make decisions based on assumptions that may not be true anymore (if they ever were). And that’s certainly the case with most challenges when it comes to marketing & selling to customers

I’ve seen so many salespeople start apologizing for the price before there was an objection from their buyer – they assumed that because THEY (the salesperson) thought the price was high, and so the prospect would as well.

Aside from the fact that this shows that the seller in question doesn’t truly believe in the value of what he’s selling, this is also a huge baseless assumption – they’re assuming the prospect shares their view on the price & relative lack of value.

My mentor has a mind that’s always looking for the simplest way to find what’s actually happening, and so he’s trained himself to hear statements that might contain baseless assumptions, and his reflex response is always the same…

“What’s your evidence for that?”

When a group of salespeople tell you that the problem with your product is that it’s too expensive, the only reasonable response to them is,

“What’s your evidence for that?”

Here’s an important exercise for you to try with your sales & marketing teams.

Consider the following questions and discussion with your sales team:

1) What do our customers expect from us?

2) What objections are raised most often, and what questions do our prospects and clients ask most often?

Then remember always to ask that one simple question:

What’s your evidence that this is true?

It’s crucial that we always have the evidence we need, especially when it comes to making decisions about what our customers want.